Phantom ships
The universal mythological topics are the phantom ships and ships of the Dead. With the help of the ship of Dead the souls of dead people get to netherworld. This ship comes either in the cloud or in a fog. According to one of the legends when a pirate dies the ship of the Dead appears in the clouds.
The legends and stories about phantom ships are spread all over the world. In the majority of cases these legends are connected with some catastrophes and shipwrecks. Very often phantom ships show the scenes of their catastrophes that may happen more and more. Usually phantom ships appear at night during storms. There are a lot of stories about phantom ships that appear near the cost of the British Isles. The stories about these ships appear even nowadays.
The Flying Dutchman is the most famous phantom ship. There are a lot of versions of the legend about this ship. According to Dutch version, the captain Van der Decken (according to another version Ramhout van Dam) was a very stubborn person, that swore to cross the Cape of Good Hope. The ship got into the storm and sank, but the crew and the captain were crossed to travel for ages near the place where they got into the storm. This phantom ship may be seen during the storm and it always predicts troubles.
According to German version this ship was sailed in the North Sea. And a devil visited a captain of the ship from time to time. They were shooting dice. The captain lost the game and his soul. And his soul turned into a spirit.
According to British version the Flying Dutchman was sailing near the Cape of Good Hope when a storm started. The crew was begging the captain to wait until the storm stopped in one of the bays, but he refused and laugh at the crew for being so cowards. The storm was getting worse and the captain cursed the God for such trouble. And at this moment a spirit appeared on board of the ship, but a stubborn captain told him to go away and even threatened to shoot it. Seeing that the spirit had no reaction he fired a gun but the gun explored in his arm. The spirit cursed him. And from that time the ship is sailing in the water of the ocean forever and the captain if has to torture his crew for eternity.
According to another version, the captain of the ship fell in love with a woman that was going on board of his ship with her bride. But the captain killed her bride and asked the woman to marry him. The woman was grieving so much that decided to suicide and jumped into the ocean from the ship. The captain was angry but went forward to the Cape of Good Hope and the ship got into the storm. The crew was begging to stay in the bay until the storm stopped. But he didn't listen and killed those who wanted to stay in a bay. And for such cruelty the captain was punished by constant sailing in the ocean. But every 7th year the captain receives the possibility to go ashore and to find a woman that will agree to marry him than a curse will disappear and the captain as well as the whole crew will become free.
Other version tells us that a goddess came to the captain but he was very rude and impolite with her and she cursed him.
A lot of other stories and legends tell us about phantom ships that appear and tell the stories of their catastrophes. These ships are the mysteries for humanity.